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(ModeL) H S BURNS Cartridge Loading Machine.

Patented Sept. 14, 1 880.

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N. PET EH5, PNOT Unrrnn STATES PATENT OFFICE...

HENRY S. BURNS, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE WVINOHESTER REPEATING ARMS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

CARTRIDGE-LOADING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 282,238, dated September 14, 1880.

Application filed July 26, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY S. BURNS, of New Haven,in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Machine for Loading Cartridges; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in

Figure 1, front view; Fig. 2, side view, with a ortion of the frame broken away; Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6, detached views.

This invention relates to an improvement in machines for loading metallic cartridges, especially adapted to those of the smaller caliber, but applicable to various sizes. In the usual method for charging such cartridges the shells are fitted with the primers, whether it be inside or outside primers. They are then arranged in plates which are provided with several series of perforations, each perforation in each series adapted to receive one shell. While in this plate the several shells are charged with the requisite quantity of powder. A similar plate having corresponding perforations, which register with the perforations in the shell-holder, is provided, and into each of the perforations a bullet is introduced. Then this plate containing the bullets is placed over the plate containing the shells, and the two together are placed in a press which is provided with several series of punches corresponding to the several series of perforations in the plates, andthen the several series of punches are forced down upon the points of the bu].- lets, driving them from the perforations in their holder into the shells below, For the smaller-sized shells about one hundred of such 1) unches-say, in five series ot'twenty each-are employed.

In performing this operation a very great amount of power is required, as the bullets must each and all be driven hard upon the powder in their respective shells, and it frequently occurs that the presses in which the punches are arranged are broken because of the strain upon them.

(Model) I oration, because, owing to the mechanism which is employedfor placing the shells and bulletsin their respective plates and the powder in the shells, it is slightly, if any, more labor to introduce a thousand shells and a thousand bullets than one hundred, provided the press could stand the strain, almost the entire time of the operator being devoted to. placing the plates in the press and taking them from it, the arrangement of shells and bullets being substantially automatic.

The object of this invention is to enable the use of plates by which a very much greater number of cartridges may be arranged than in the plates in the process now generally practiced; and the invention consists in the construction as hereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claim.

A represents the bed of the machine, front which rise uprights B B, and between which is a slide, C, operated from a driving-shaft, D, in substantially the usual manner for powerpresses, to impart to the slide a vertical reciprocating movement, too well known to require particular description in this specification.

The slide 0 is provided with a series of punches, at a, more or less in number, and which, by the movement of the slide 0, are reciprocated up and down or vertically.

E, Fig. 3, is a plate with perforations in series 1 2 3 4, 850., each series corresponding in position to the several-punches a in the press. The plate E is constructed to receive the cartridge-shells b, as seen in Fig. 5, enlarged, and so that the mouth of the shells will come flush with or very slightly below its upper surface. Upon the under side of the plate E a slide, 0, is arranged, which covers all the perforations.

The shells are placethiu the plate E when the plate is inverted, and so that the heads or flanges will rest on what will then be the up per surface of the plate. Then the slide 0 is pressed in, covering the heads, and so that when the plate E is turned over the heads will rest on the slide 0. In that condition the priming may be introduced into the shells, or it may have been previously introduced upon the outside, if desirable, or upon the inside. Then, with the plate right side up, and so as to expose the mouths of the shells, the powder is perforationsa'egisteringwith those of the plate .19 below, and over the two a frame, H, (see Fig.

6,) is placed, surrounding the edges and fitting closely thereto. The two sides of this frame L, or may be one side only, is provided with a series of notches corresponding to the several series of perforations in the plates E H, and

together forming a carriage to slide on the guide or bed F.

On the press is a rock-shaft, (I, -to which an oscillating moveinentis imparted from the driving-shaft or otherwise; and from an arm,f, on this shaft a spring-pawl, n, is arranged to ride upon the upper surface of the frame L, and, engaging the first notch, will bring the first series of perforations in the plates E H directly beneath the corresponding punches a in the slide C. These punches strike the bullets in that series, and force them down into their respective shells, as seen in Fig. 5. Then when the punches rise the pawl n advances, takes the next notch, and draws the'frame L, with the plates inward, to present the second series, and so on until all the series of bullets have been acted upon. Then the plates are taken from the machine, the cartridges removed, new shells and bullets introduced, and so on.

By this machine plates may be usedhaving many times the number of shells and bullets in them that could be used in the usual massloading, and the power required to operate the punches is as much less as the one series of punchesis in proportion to the several series of punches generally used. Hence the strain upon the machine is proportionately reduced. But as the feeding is automatic and the number of cartridges in the plate greatly increased, and no longer time required for introduction of the greatly-increased number of shells than in the much smaller number in the usual method, it follows that not onlyis there a great saving in machinery and power, but a great saving of time, and the work quite as satisfactorily performed.

Instead of the pawl and ratchet or pawls and ratehets for feeding the plates, other known equivalents therefor may be employed.

I claim- In a machine for charging cartridges, the combination of the bullet and shell plates, each constructed with several series of perforations correspondin g to each other, to respectively receive the bullets and shells, the said plates arranged upon guides in the press, a series of reciprocating punches corresponding to and so as to enter one series of perforations in said plates, and any automatic feed to intermittently move said plates to successively present the several series of perforations in the plates to the said series of punches, substantially as described.

. HENRY S. BURNS. Witnesses 'l. G. BURNETT,

DANIEL H. VEADER. 

